Animals That Start With F: 25 Animals From Falcon to Frog

Falcon

Falcons are fast birds of prey with long, pointed wings, and there are about 40 species. The peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on Earth, diving at more than 300 km/h (186 mph) to strike birds in mid-air; see our list of the fastest animals. Kestrels are small falcons that hover in the wind while they search for mice and insects.

Fallow deer

The fallow deer is a medium-sized deer whose coat is often spotted with white, and males grow broad, flattened antlers like small versions of a moose’s. Originally from Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean, it was spread across Europe by people, including the Romans and later the Normans in Britain. Today it lives in parks and woods throughout Europe and has been introduced to the Americas, Australia and New Zealand.

Fennec fox

The fennec fox of the Sahara and North Africa is the smallest fox in the world, weighing only about 1–1.9 kg (2.2–4.2 lb). Its enormous ears, about 10 cm (4 in) long, release body heat and pick up the sounds of insects and rodents moving underground. Furry soles protect its feet from hot sand, and it can go a long time without drinking.

Ferret

The ferret is a domesticated form of the European polecat, kept by people since ancient times. Its wild North American cousin, the black-footed ferret, was declared extinct in 1979, but a small population was rediscovered in 1981 near Meeteetse, Wyoming. Captive breeding has returned it to the prairies, and in 2021 scientists introduced Elizabeth Ann, the first cloned black-footed ferret. It is listed as Endangered.

Fiddler crab

Fiddler crabs are small crabs of beaches, mudflats and mangroves in warm parts of the world, with about 100 species. Males have one hugely enlarged claw, which they wave in the air to attract females and warn off rival males; the name comes from the way the big and small claws together look like a fiddle and its bow. They feed by sifting tiny scraps of food from the mud.

Fieldfare

The fieldfare is a large, gray-headed thrush that breeds in the woods of northern Europe and Asia. Each winter big flocks fly south and west, arriving in Britain and southern Europe to feed on berries in hedgerows and fallen apples in orchards. Nesting fieldfares defend their colonies boldly, diving at crows and other predators and even splattering them with droppings.

Finch

Finches are small songbirds with strong, cone-shaped bills for cracking seeds; familiar examples include the American goldfinch, the European goldfinch and the house finch. The famous “Darwin’s finches” of the Galápagos Islands, about 18 species with beaks shaped for different foods, are a classic example of evolution in action. Surprisingly, they are not true finches but members of the tanager family.

Fin whale

The fin whale is the second-largest animal on Earth after the blue whale, and the biggest ever measured were about 26–27 m (85–90 ft) long. It is also one of the fastest whales, sustaining 37–41 km/h (23–25 mph), which earned it the nickname “greyhound of the sea”. Its coloring is lopsided: the right lower jaw is white, while the left side of the head is dark gray. It is listed as Vulnerable.

Fire ant

The red imported fire ant comes from South America but was accidentally introduced to the southern United States in the 1930s, and it has since spread to Australia, Asia and other regions. It is named for the burning feeling of its sting. When floods come, the workers link their bodies to form living rafts that keep the queen and colony afloat. Anyone who has a severe reaction to stings needs emergency medical help immediately.

Firefly

Fireflies, also called lightning bugs, are not flies but soft-bodied beetles, with more than 2,400 described species. They make light through a chemical reaction in the abdomen, and each species has its own pattern of flashes for finding a mate. In some, the females of one species copy the flash code of another species to lure its males in and eat them.

Fire salamander

The fire salamander is a glossy black-and-yellow amphibian of European forests, whose bright colors warn predators that its skin produces toxic secretions. Its name comes from an old belief that salamanders could live in fire, probably because they crawled out of logs thrown onto fires. One lived more than 50 years in a German museum. It is now Vulnerable because of a deadly introduced fungus.

Fisher

The fisher is a dark, bushy-tailed member of the weasel family that lives in the forests of Canada and the northern United States. Despite its name it rarely eats fish, and it is not a cat, even though it is sometimes called a “fisher cat”. It hunts snowshoe hares and is one of the few predators able to kill porcupines safely, attacking them from the front.

Fishing cat

The fishing cat is a sturdy wild cat of South and Southeast Asia, about twice the size of a house cat. It lives in wetlands, mangroves and along rivers, and it is an excellent swimmer that catches fish by scooping them out with its paws or diving after them, even swimming underwater. Draining and clearing of wetlands has made it Vulnerable.

Flamingo

There are six species of flamingo, four in the Americas and two in Africa, Asia and southern Europe, where greater flamingos nest in places such as the Camargue in France. Their pink color comes from natural pigments in the algae and tiny shrimp they eat. Flamingos feed with their heads upside down, filtering food from the water with their bills, and often rest standing on one leg.

Flea

Fleas are tiny, wingless insects that live as parasites, feeding on the blood of mammals and birds. Their powerful hind legs let some species leap about 50 times their own body length, one of the best jumps of any animal. Historically, the oriental rat flea spread the bacteria that caused bubonic plague, including the Black Death of the 14th century.

Flounder

Flounders are flatfish that lie on the sea floor with both eyes facing up. They hatch looking like ordinary fish, with an eye on each side of the head, but as the young fish grows, one eye gradually moves across to join the other. Flounders can change the color and pattern of their upper side to match sand and gravel, and the European flounder often swims up into estuaries and rivers.

Fly

True flies have only one pair of flying wings; the hind pair has shrunk into tiny knobs called halteres that help them balance like gyroscopes. With more than 150,000 described species, including houseflies, mosquitoes, hoverflies and crane flies, they are one of the largest groups of insects. Many flies, especially hoverflies, are important pollinators of flowers and crops.

Flying fish

Flying fish leap out of the sea to escape predators and glide on large, wing-like fins; there are about 64 species in warm oceans worldwide. Most glides cover around 50 m (160 ft), but by using rising air at the front of waves they can travel up to 400 m (1,300 ft). In 2008 a Japanese television crew filmed one gliding for 45 seconds.

Flying fox

Flying foxes are large fruit bats of tropical Asia, Australia and islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. The large flying fox of Southeast Asia has a wingspan of up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) and is listed as Endangered. Unlike most bats, flying foxes do not use echolocation; they find fruit, flowers and nectar with their keen eyes and noses and are important pollinators and seed dispersers.

Flying squirrel

Flying squirrels cannot really fly. Instead they glide from tree to tree on a furry membrane stretched between their front and hind legs, steering with their flat tails. Most are active at night and have large eyes. North America has the northern and southern flying squirrels, while Europe’s only species, the Siberian flying squirrel, lives in Russia and, within the European Union, only in Finland and Estonia.

Fossa

The fossa is the largest native mammal predator on Madagascar, with a slender body 70–80 cm (28–31 in) long and a tail almost as long again. It looks like a small cougar, but DNA shows it is related to mongooses. Lemurs make up more than half of its diet, and it is an agile climber that can run down tree trunks headfirst. It is listed as Vulnerable.

Fox

About a dozen species of “true fox” live around the world. The red fox is the largest of them and the most widespread wild carnivore on Earth, found across the Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic to deserts, and introduced to Australia. Foxes eat almost anything, from voles and rabbits to beetles and berries; read what do foxes eat? for the details.

Frigatebird

Frigatebirds are large seabirds of tropical oceans with long, angled wings, deeply forked tails and the largest wing area for their body weight of any bird. Males inflate a red throat pouch like a balloon to attract females. Their feathers are not waterproof, so they rarely land on the sea; they snatch flying fish from the surface and sometimes chase other seabirds until they give up their catch.

Frilled lizard

The frilled lizard of northern Australia and southern New Guinea spends most of its time in trees. When threatened, it suddenly opens a large frill of skin around its neck, gapes its mouth wide and hisses to look bigger and scarier. If the bluff fails, it turns and runs away upright on its hind legs.

Frog

Frogs make up about 88% of all amphibian species, with more than 7,000 species living everywhere from rainforests to the Arctic edge. Most lay eggs in water that hatch into tadpoles, and many breathe partly through their skin. The goliath frog of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea is the largest, with a body up to 32 cm (12.6 in) long and a weight of up to about 3.3 kg (7.2 lb).